Research overview: landscape genetics of central Indian tiger corridors

Landscape genetics has become a powerful tool for assessing whether tiger corridors actually carry gene flow between reserves in central India. This overview surveys research that samples tiger DNA across reserves and intervening corridors to measure connectivity directly, rather than inferring it from habitat maps alone. Studies reveal that forest corridors maintain genetic links between populations such as those in Kanha, Pench, and Satpura, and that breaking these corridors through infrastructure and land conversion would isolate reserves and erode diversity. Researchers correlate genetic connectivity with landscape features to identify which linkages matter most and where mitigation is urgent. The overview frames landscape genetics as providing hard evidence for corridor conservation, moving beyond assumptions to demonstrate functional connectivity. It matters because protecting the specific corridors that genetic data show are carrying dispersing tigers is among the most defensible, targeted investments in the region's long-term tiger viability.